ИСТИНА

Raising low salaries is one of the most pressing challenges the educational system has to deal with. It affects the system as a whole, though its most affected level is the preschool education since at this level the educators earn salaries that are lower than on average for the educational system. We will review the changes in preschool educators' salaries in Russia after the Presidential Decree No. 597 dated May 7, 2012, was adopted. For this purpose, we will consider the nominal salary of educators and its dynamics as well as its purchasing power taking into account the burden of children. Our findings show that educators are in an unsatisfactory financial standing and that in some of the cases their salaries fail to keep them and their families in being. The trends identified are rather controversial and we assume that currently, the educators’ standards of living are close to those of 2013 or even lower.